Discussions

Nothing on the technical end has changed. "Free" services have always monetized by data mining. Most paid services did not. What's changing is the user, here. They are becoming more aware of privacy concerns, and thus more of them are willing to pay in order to retain their privacy. Unfortunately, I'm not sure enough of them are willing to pay. Most still are living in the mobile app generation that expects everything to be free, or basically free. That's a market that will never work without some way to monetize, which means data mining.

I bet Microsoft and Google both would be very happy to provide you ad free, and thus privacy friendly, services if you'd be willing to pay the right price. The question is how many people would really be willing to pay for it.

Free Speech requires a lack of violence on both sides. We cannot have a reasonable debate when one side is threatening to kill the other. Giving them "freedom of speech" is meaningless until they put their guns away.

To quote you, + a million. I'm certainly not siding with the terrorists. Nor do I prioritize free speech over murder. In any case, as you pointed out, free speech has limits, and I'd say the terrorists have long since left free speech behind.

Yea I get all that and agree in principle. I'm more concerned about the people being slaughtered by these animals right now, but that is just me I guess. I was thinking maybe we can stop that first and then try to have a discussion because AFAICT, talking to them about it hasn't been productive up until now.

I'm concerned about people getting mugged as well, but that doesn't mean I want vigilantes to beat the crap out of people they think are muggers. I want the police to deal with that. In this case, let our government agencies/military deal with it.

Holy crap. A blatant rip off, yet they claim "The world's 1st, true ultra-tablet." Even though it's a rip off, they did a damn poor job. In comparison to any of the Surface models this one looks like an early prototype and not like something you'd actually want to ship. Then we have a whole brand new OS, but for what purpose? Also, since it's Android based, it's not a competitor for the Surface Pro. I can see some people being interested in this device, but the marketing is flawed and I'd be concerned with patent violation lawsuits.

The police should not have a license to get away with any kind of behaviour to someone who poses no public danger simply for refusal to cooperate (including resisting arrest).

Sorry, while I'll agree with most of what you said, I can't agree here. Police officers are putting their lives on the line. Someone resisting arrest has upped the likelihood of injury or death to the officer high enough that it may well warrant extreme behavior on the part of the officer. Granted, each incident needs to be investigated, and I'm drawing no conclusions on any specific incident. But the sentiment that the cops were automatically out of line in these situations is troublesome. If you're worried about these outcomes, don't resist arrest.

I have no idea. I do know that you can't fire someone without just cause.

That depends on the state, but in general this assertion is false. Even if your not in a state where you can be terminated for any reason, "just cause" is wide enough that anyone can be terminated at any time.

@BitFlipper: George Washington and his gang were considered terrorists. Not that I want to make too strong a parallel between America's founders and the Jihadist, but I simply can't condone vigilantism. Very little in this world is black and white, and vigilantes so rarely understand this. In the attempt to "cyber attack" the terrorists, I guarantee they'll harm innocents.

@fanbaby: You know what, cut the snide remarks. This is a useful post, but personal attacks (yes, I took the snide remark personally) aren't warranted on any public forum. I know you're a closed minded zealot, but you can at least have manners.

C++ has a standard. There are multiple companies implementing this standard. Yes, the GNU stuff is used everywhere, and could just as easily be seen as the WebKit of the C++ compiler world. Why doesn't everyone just use that?

Well, problems in the standard are discovered when there are multiple implementations. The standard becomes stronger. Extensions are made in different implementations, some of which get moved back into the standard, making it stronger. It's beneficial to have multiple implementations and a single standard.

The same is true for web browsers. A single standard is good. A single implementation is not. End of story.

But, it's evident now, you're real argument is about Open Source. Sorry, I don't care to be a part of that debate, as most people have taken sides and are now close minded. I don't take sides in this debate. We need both, and neither is better than the other.